Consumers often have a desire to inspect a product both visually and tactually before making a purchase. This is especially true when such purchase involves an unfamiliar product. Package designers heretofore have had difficulty in accommodating this desire while maintaining the integrity of product packaging and maximizing the available graphic surface area thereon. Indeed, it is common at the point of sale for a customer to attempt to open a package and remove the product therefrom. Such attempts generally resulting in damage to the package, the product, or both. Even if the product remains undamaged, it is nevertheless often unsalable as customer perception generally equates a damaged package to a damaged product. The integrity of the packaging of the product is particularly important when the contemplated purchase is destined to become a gift as consumers rarely, if ever, will purchase a gift having damaged packaging.
Moreover, damaged packages mar the overall point of sale display by suggesting a product of inferior quality and, consequently, may dissuade the customer from making a purchase. Damaged packaging therefore represents a significant expense to the retailer who must waste valuable retail space on non-salable products and must ultimately return the damaged packages and products to the manufacturer or attempt to sell the goods at a discount. If returned, the damage goods also represent a significant expense to the manufacturer who must repackage the product and then resell and reship the goods to a retailer. Thus, damaged packaging results in a considerable expense to both the retailer and the manufacturer despite the fact that the product itself may remain undamaged.
Accordingly, designers of product packaging have attempted to address the problem of package damage by packaging products in a manner giving maximum visibility to the product inside the package. One such example is the ubiquitous blister pack which may be found in any retail outlet. While providing maximum product visibility, blister packs generally prevent the purchaser from tactually examining the product. Such packaging also minimizes the surface area available for descriptive text or graphics related to the marketing or use of the product.
As an alternative to the blister packs, package designers have sought a compromise in packaging products in boxes or other containers having a shrink-wrap covering. Although offering increased surface area for graphics and the like and providing for visual inspection of the product, a shrink wrap packaging arrangement nonetheless inhibits full tactile inspection of the product. It is also susceptible to customer breakage resulting in a non-salable product.
Further, neither blister nor shrink-wrap packaging generally is perceived as acceptable for displays in higher end retail stores. In such markets it is of utmost importance that customers be permitted to freely handle and inspect potential purchases in order to instill into the customer a high degree of purchasing confidence. The customer thereby is put at ease and may be more likely to make a purchase. Blister packs and shrink-wrapped packages, however, suggest that the product needs protection from the customer. The customer therefore may perceive that he or she is not trusted to properly handle the products, and may forego making a purchase.
In view of the foregoing, it is apparent that there has existed and remains a need for an improved product package which facilitates both the visual and the tactile examination of the goods. Indeed, for those products where the salable aspect of the product is proven in the tactile experience, it is imperative that the customer be afforded the opportunity to both visually and tactually inspect the product. The packaging schemes heretofore known in the art, however, have not been successful in so affording. Accordingly, the provision of a packaging scheme which permits a purchaser to inspect all aspects of a product both visually and tactually would be well-received by the manufacturing and retail industries, as well as by the consuming public in general.